National Academies Press: OpenBook

Railroad Legal Issues and Resources (2015)

Chapter: IX. Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads

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Suggested Citation:"IX. Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. Railroad Legal Issues and Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22093.
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Page 30
Page 31
Suggested Citation:"IX. Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2015. Railroad Legal Issues and Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22093.
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Page 31

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30 E. CREATE’s Future as Dependent on Additional Funding 279 A June 2013 article in the Chicago Tribune states that the CREATE program still needed $2 billion for the completion of its projects.113 IX. COMMON CARRIER OBLIGATION OF RAILROADS 280 A. Introduction 280 By reason of the common carrier obligation of railroads, codified at 49 U.S.C. § 11101, a railroad company is required to provide transportation to all parties upon reasonable request, including for hazardous materials. Sections B and C discuss statutes, regulations, and policies that apply to a rail carrier’s common carrier obligation. As discussed in Section D, exceptions to a railroad company’s common carrier obligation are not to be implied. Section E illustrates more particularly the statutory obligation of a railroad company as a common carrier to transport hazardous materials. Section F discusses a recent article on the preemption of tort claims under state law with respect to a railroad company’s transportation of such materials. Statutes, Regulations, and Policies 280 B. Common Carrier Transportation, Service, and Rates 280 Under 49 U.S.C. § 11101, “[a] rail carrier providing transportation or service subject to the jurisdiction of the Board under this part shall provide the transportation or service on reasonable request.” C. Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads to Transport 281 Hazardous Materials This subpart discusses regulations of DOT and FRA to improve the integrity of tank cars to reduce the possibility of spillage or leakage and the DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which has published rules (49 C.F.R. § 172.80, et seq.) regarding the transportation of hazardous materials. 113 Richard Wronski, Chicago Rail Program a Success, but Future Funding in Doubt, Officials Say, CHICAGO TRIBUNE (June 11, 2013), available at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-11/news/ct- met-railroad-bottlenecks-20130611_1_rail-crossings-create-program-englewood-flyover (last accessed Mar. 31, 2015).

31 Cases 283 D. Exceptions to the Common Carrier Obligation Are Not 283 To Be Implied In 1967, in Am. Trucking Ass’n v. Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Ry. Co.,114 in which the Supreme Court heard challenges to rules promulgated by the Interstate Transportation Commission (ICC) on trailer-on-flatcar service, the Court held that the “obligation as common carriers is comprehensive and exceptions are not to be implied.”115 E. Statutory Common Carrier Obligation to Transport 284 Hazardous Materials In Riffin v. Surface Transportation Board,116 the District of Columbia Circuit denied a petition to review a ruling by the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The court stated that “railroads have…a statutory common carrier obligation to transport hazardous materials where the appropriate agencies have promulgated comprehensive safety regulations,” and that a railroad’s statutory obligation under § 11101 supersedes the common law.117 Article 285 F. The Common Carrier Obligation and the Preemption of 285 State Tort Law on the Transportation of Hazardous Materials The common carrier obligation that began as a common law doctrine was codified in the 1887 Act to Regulate Commerce and later codified by the Hepburn Act of 1906.118 The common carrier obligation mandates that railroads transport hazardous materials as long as there is a comprehensive regulatory framework that governs the transportation of such materials. The Federal Railroad Safety Act and the Hazardous Materials Safety Act preempt tort claims under state law. 114 387 U.S. 397, 407, 87 S. Ct. 1608, 1614, 18 L. Ed. 2d 847 (1967). 115 Id., 387 U.S. at 407, 87 S. Ct. at 1614. 116 733 F.3d 340 (D.C. Cir. 2013). 117 Id. at 343. 118 Aaron Ries, Railroad Tort Liability After the “Clarifying Amendment:” Are Railroads Still Protected by Preemption, 77 DEF. COUNS. J. 92, 97 (2010).

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TRB’s National Cooperative Rail Research Program (NCRRP) Legal Research Digest 2: Railroad Legal Issues and Resources presents legal issues of importance that attorneys may encounter when representing both freight and passenger railroad owners, and operators involved in railroad-related transactions. Issues explored in the report range from abandonment and discontinuance to constitutional law, construction, contracts, interaction with regulatory agencies, safety, retirement, and numerous other subjects.

The electronic version of the digest includes more than 700 pages of case law presenting detailed summaries of statutes, regulations, cases, and relevant articles as a fundamental resource for use in understanding the background and broad ramifications of railroad-related law reflected in each category. To access the case law, click the Roman numeral headings, which are linked to the legal topics. A search for the legal topic will also result in finding it. The printed digest includes an annotated index of the case law and a bound-in CD-ROM with the case law reference materials.

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